Now Showing: The Monster Squad

 

The Monster Squad

Genre: Horror/Fantasy/Comedy

Director: Shawn Levy

Writer: Walter McKnight

Based on the 1987 film

Cast: August Maturo, Steve Zahn, Tom Wlashciha, Rory McCann, Mason Thames, Tinsley Price, Keith L. Williams, Udo Kier, Hannah Kepple, Jason Lee, Javier Botet, Brian Steele, Robert Englund

Plot: The 1880's!

Abraham Van Helsing (Robert Englund) tries to read an incantation while holding an amulet to rid the world of Dracula and other vampires for good. Dracula (Tom Wlashciha) goes into hiding though and Van Helsing is unable to read the incantation for the sun rises. He knows that the world now must wait another hundred years to cast Dracula and his other monsters into another universe away from ours. He tells his apprentices to take the amulet and his diary and take it far away from Transylvania so that Dracula can never find it.

The 1980's!

Sean Crenshaw (August Maturo), Patrick (Mason Thames) and Eugene (Keith L. Williams) sit around a table playing a table top role playing game based around the classic film monsters. They call themselves "The Monster Squad". Friday the 13th plays on a TV in the background while Patrick complains about today's monsters not having nearly the personality of the Universal greats. Back to the game, Eugene rolls a 20-sided die, landing on a 5. Sean then reads from the game book that the brides of Dracula have killed their entire party and their quest has failed. Patrick objects, stating the campaign is too difficult for anyone to win. Sean pokes fun at Patrick's belly-aching.

Sean is walking his younger sister Phoebe (Tinsley Price) home from school when he notices a Halloween display in an antique store. He drags his sister inside to look around. Sean stumbles upon a very old book, but he recognizes a name on the inside cover: Abraham Van Helsing. He buys the book for $2 as the clerk insists the book was just set dressing and is pretty much worthless. When he gets home, Sean calls up his friends and tells them to urgently get over to his house as he has something cool. When Patrick and Eugene arrive, he shows off the book, which he believes to be the diary of Abraham Van Helsing. Patrick says that Van Helsing was just a character Bram Stoker created, while Eugene is a bit more eager to believe Sean's theory, but points out that none of them can understand the German the diary appears to be written in. Sean's dad, the town sheriff, Del Crenshaw (Steve Zahn), reminds everyone that he has to work late the next night - Halloween - but that if he takes his sister trick or treating for a little bit the boys can order some pizza and rent some movies - his treat. Sean begrudginly agrees. Eugene thinks that's a sweet deal though. Phoebe tells the boys that they can ask the scary german guy who lives down the street to translate. 

At the police station, Del keeps getting calls from a frantic, desperate man (Jason Lee), insisting that Dracula is coming back on Halloween night and will try to plunge the world into darkness so he can rule. Del hangs up the phone, joking to his officers that at least the prank calls around Halloween are a bit more entertaining. 

Sean, Patrick and Eugene walk down the block and knock on a door. The door is answered by an intense-looking, but friendly "Scary German Guy" (Udo Kier). They ask if he can translate the diary for them. They sit on his front porch as he reads from the diary. He describes an amulet composed of concentrated "good". Once a century, the amulet becomes vulnerable to destruction when good and bad reach a balance. He then states the the diary has an incantation that must be read by a female virgin on the night of balance to open the wormhole to cast the monsters into limbo. The diary calculates the next "day of balance" to be the next night... Halloween. The Scary German Guy comments that the diary is a fun scary story perfect for this time of year. When the leave his porch, the boys talk about if the diary is true or not.

A plane is flying from Europe to the United States when it crash lands in a swamp. A coffin is dragged out of the wreckage in the swamp by the Gill-Man (Brian Steele). Dracula watches from a distance in bat form. He flies over to the coffin, which Gill-Man opens to reveal Frankenstein's Monster (Rory McCann). Dracula awakens Frankenstein's Monster, but the sun will soon come up and he must find a place to sleep. Frankenstein's Monster stumbles away from the crash and finds himself walking into the backyard of the Crenshaw house. Phoebe sees "Frank" outside of her bedroom window and goes to talk to him. 

In the middle of the night at the town's museum, a security guard responds to a the sound of broken glass coming from the Ancient Egypt exhibit. When he goes to investigate, he finds the exhibit's main attraction, a 2000 year old mummy, has come back to life. The Mummy (Javier Botet) attacks the guard and escapes the museum.

As a bat, Dracula flies to the cemetery and finds a cave near the town cemetery. There it is revealed that he has already located the amulet, so now he just needs to wait for the window to open on Halloween night. He is soon joined by The Mummy and the Gill-Man in the cave.

Halloween...

Sean finds his sister having a tea party in the backyard with Frank. Sean calls over Patrick and Eugene. They discuss how Frankenstein's Monster can be killed. Eugene says that Frankenstein's Monster is already dead, so he cannot be killed. Patrick points out that in Mary Shelley's original book, the creature sets himself on fire in a suicide attempt in the end. The Monster Squad make three makeshift torches and charge into the backyard, ready to set Frank on fire. Phoebe stops them, insisting that Frank is nice. Phoebe then demonstrates by showing that she has taught Frank how to play pattycake. They ask if he knows about Dracula. In broken English, Frank manages to inform them that Dracula brought him here, but he doesn't want to help him because Dracula is mean and he doesn't want to be mean, Frank wants to be nice. 

Before it gets dark, Sean and his friends take Phoebe and Frank trick-or-treating around town. Frank wears a mask of Frankenstein's Monster. They get to as many houses as they can while it is still light out. Most of the adults assume that Frank is Del is a costume with stilts. As the group passes the town sporting goods store, they decide to load up some weapons for a trip to Dracula's hideout. Patrick picks out a crossbow, Sean picks out an axe, Eugene picks out a BB gun, Frank picks out a baseball bat. The group gathers all of the silver ware from their houses and melt it down to BB sized pellets. They also make sharpen several sticks from the woods into wooden stakes.

The man who called the police the night before arrives at the police station. He calls himself a "Wolf Man" and demands to be placed in jail so that he can protect. Given the man's erratic behavior, Del arranges for an ambulance to take the "Wolf Man" to the hospital for psychiatric evaluation. As the Wolf Man is being loaded up into the ambulance, Del gets an urgent call from the town museum reporting that mummy has been stolen from a display. On the drive to the hospital, the "Wolf Man" begins to transform as the clouds part, revealing a full moon. He fully transforms into a werewolf and causes the ambulance to crash into a tree. He runs off into the forest where he joins up with Dracula, Gill-Man and The Mummy (Javier Botet).

Frank leads the boys and Phoebe to Dracula's cemetary cave hideout. They sneak inside and manage to steal the amulet away from Dracula. They run away as Dracula, The Mummy and the Wolf Man chase after, nearly getting hit by the truck of the Scary German Guy. They try to explain that they are being chased by monsters, but he laughs off their claims, saying that diary must have gotten to them. He then sees The Mummy and the Wolf Man emerge. He lets the group into his truck and speeds off as the werewolf chases after them. They say they have to go to the local church to read the incantation, but they need a female virgin. When they pull up to the church, Patrick spots his older sister Lisa (Hannah Kepple) on a date at the pizza place across the street. He runs over and drags her over to the church. 

Dracula, the Mummy, Gill-Man and the Wolf Man all converge on the church in the center of town as the Scary German Guy helps Lisa recite the incantation from Van Helsing's journal. Patrick begins firing his crossbow at Dracula, but Dracula turns into a bat in order to evade the arrows. Sean attacks The Mummy with his axe, chopping off the Mummy's arm, but it doesn't slow him down. Frank fights the Wolf Man while Eugene tries to hit the Wolf Man with the silver BB pellets. 

Del and his officers are inundated with calls about a violent commotion in the middle of town. He tells everyone to load up, arm up and they will go and take a look.

When Lisa gets done reciting the incantation, nothing happens. Patrick asks his sister if she's really a virgin still. She becomes defensive, eventually revealing that she recently had sex for the first time with her boyfriend. Patrick plugs his ears as she talks. Sean then asks if anyone else is a virgin. None of the boys want to admit to being a virgin, but Eugene then asks what about Phoebe. Sean tells him not to talk about his sister that way, but Eugene then points out that she obviously would be a virgin given her age. The Scary German Guy helps Phoebe read the incantation. Eugene manages to hit the Wolf Man in the eye with a silver BB. The Wolf Man turns back to human form and thanks the boys for ending his curse as he dies. Dracula is about to bite into Sean when Phoebe finishes reading the incantation, opening up a wormhole. Abraham Van Helsing emerges from the wormhole and drags Dracula into it. The Mummy is swept up into it, as well as the Gill-Man. Frank starts to get swept up into it, but Phoebe holds his hand, not wanting her new friend to leave. Frank thanks her for being nice to him. He lets go of her hand and is swept up into the wormhole. 

Del and his officers arrive on the scene after all of the action has been finished. He asks his children what happened. He thought they would be at home watching scary movies and eating pizza. Phoebe begins telling her father all about Dracula and Frank and how the Monster Squad saved the day.